Parrish, An Unincorporated Community

Parrish,
An Unincorporated Community

Driving home through the unmanned gate
entering the low, the lawlessness
seven in the morning
end of the night
sky-blinded, free falling, bound
last night, all night

school busses mindless on route
uneven pulses and animal thoughts
mangled, misfiring, filed wrong

joggers, cyclists, working people,
golfers—dewy people
breaking even
all the little holes

birds in morning cheer
frenetic, purposeful, evolved

heat, the summer kind
the Florida kind
the killing kind
rising up
I smoke too, it’s what I do

I’m a nightmare
pretty and dead
too high and too low
attempting to reunite
reconfigure broken parts
of broken pieces
but passing, failing, missing
catching meaning with my elbows

thinking fails and trails the last thought
the last wished for want— what was it…
it came so easily last night
last morning
and I beg it to fade until again it’s yesterday

and then I’m lured, struck dumb
like a flattered girl
I pick up on the first ring
again and again and
tomorrow